The intrinsic equatorial ellipticity of bulges

Méndez-Abreu, J.; Aguerri, J. A. L.; Corsini, E. M.; Simonneau, E.
Bibliographical reference

Formation and Evolution of Galaxy Bulges, Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, IAU Symposium, Volume 245, p. 139-140

Advertised on:
7
2008
Number of authors
4
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
Traditionally, the study of the structural parameters of galaxies have been used to understand the bulge formation processes. However, one piece lost in this study is the three-dimensional shape of the bulges. In this work, the structural parameters of a magnitude-limited sample of 148 unbarred S0-Sb galaxies were derived to study the correlations between bulge and disk parameters as well as the probability distribution function (PDF) of the intrinsic equatorial ellipticity of bulges. A new algorithm (GASP-2D) was used to perform the bidimensional bulge-disk decomposition of J-band galaxy images extracted from the archive of the 2MASS survey. The PDF of intrinsic ellipticities was derived from the distribution of the observed ellipticities of bulges and misalignments between bulges and disks. About 80% of bulges in S0-Sb galaxies are not oblate but triaxial ellipsoids. Their mean axial ratio in the equatorial plane is =0.85. There is not significant dependence of their PDF on morphology, light concentration, and luminosity. The scenarios in which bulges assembled from mergers and/or grew over long times through disk secular evolution have to be tested against the derived PDF of bulge intrinsic ellipticities.
Related projects
Project Image
Starbursts in Galaxies GEFE

Starsbursts play a key role in the cosmic evolution of galaxies, and thus in the star formation (SF) history of the universe, the production of metals, and the feedback coupling galaxies with the cosmic web. Extreme SF conditions prevail early on during the formation of the first stars and galaxies, therefore, the starburst phenomenon constitutes a

Casiana
Muñoz Tuñón